Josh Bascom, “Have a Seat”

What are you afraid of? That is itself a kind of scary question. Given the opportunity to reflect for a bit, I think it’s fair to say that we’d all answer that we’re afraid of something, maybe even something very specific. She’s afraid of who she’s become, he’s afraid of what he’s done, we’re all afraid, in our own sort of way, that things won’t go the way we want them to. Fear has a way of taking us out of the given moment and painfully forcing us to look at the future with a scary uncertainty. Today you may feel like things are finally coming together or falling apart for you, but no matter who you are, you brought some big or little fears along with you today. 

Thankfully Jesus has a few words to say to all of us about our fears when he gave the shortest sermon ever in our reading today from the Gospel of Luke. 

Fear affects us all in different ways. It can create a paralysis for some of us, it can bring on depression and the desire to isolate and escape, while others respond to their fears by trying to take action, like a did a few weeks ago. I typically don’t have anything nice to say about new year’s resolutions and I can often be a bit obnoxious in my responses to folks asking me about them—or at least I’m told that I can be a bit obnoxious…But this year I decided to get off my high horse, and for the first time I convinced myself that there’s a big difference between new year’s goals and resolutions (right…?). That I’d simply make a few goals for myself that would lead to a better, healthier, happier version of myself, better suited to face the year, better suited to take on some of my own fears. So I opened up the notes app in my phone and within a few minutes I had written out over 35 goals for myself this year! 35! I’m pretty sure that 35 is the official number for being afraid of something. And then the next day, I’m not making this up, we got about eight inches of snow, I lost power for a week, and that list of 35 goals doesn’t have single check mark next to it!

We all have our own methods to trying to control our fears, particularly our fears about the future. Activist and celebrity Emma Lim created a website called the “No Future Pledge”, where she along with over six thousand people have vowed to never have children. Lim explains, “Even though I want to have children more than almost anything else in the world, what kind of mother would I be if I brought a baby into a world where I couldn’t make sure they were safe?” 

Whoever you are, your heart just breaks hearing this. 

Well, Jesus has something to say and more importantly something to do when it comes to our fears about the future and our anxieties about the present day.

In Luke’s Gospel we see Jesus return home to Nazareth where he is asked to preach, much like a seminarian returning home and given a guest spot in the pulpit. The first time I was asked to come back here to Christ Church and preach I was so nervous that I forgot the words, “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” to begin my sermon. I just mumbled something, said amen, and then went into what I’m sure was a fantastic sermon!

And I can remember my first children’s sermon at our 9:00am service. Once again I was terrified, so I actually spoke about it and gave a short little talk on being nervous, and one of the kids sitting next to me kindly put their hand on my shoulder and said, “I’m sorry you’re so nervous”!

But when it comes time for Jesus to give his first homecoming sermon, he stands up with confidence to preach. He selects a passage from the book of Isaiah where it was written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free, 

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Jesus chooses a passage that takes us all right to the heart of the matter. Jesus quotes from this Old Testament prophecy that everyone was longing and waiting to come true. Waiting for the Messiah to finally bring good news, relief and deliverance from the cares and concerns of this world and the next—from all the things that we’re afraid of. 

This message, this good news that’s on offer, that’s arrived with Jesus is for everyone listening, and that’s actually a really important thing for us to hear today for two reasons I think: We often make the mistake of thinking that these words from Isaiah are just about the people over there who need help, not us, not me. It’s an honest enough mistake, perhaps you don’t think of yourself as literally being poor or blind or held captive and there are people who literally are, who we ought to reach out to with love and help, but when we make that mistake one of two things tends to happen. 

1) we can pretty quickly become pretty self-righteous in thinking that the people in need of real help and salvation are those people over there. The best example of this I can think of was when the terrible events of August 12th took place right next door. In the aftermath of the violence of that day the people of Charlottesville were very quick to point out that the people causing all of the trouble were all from somewhere outside of Charlottesville. They didn’t live here, because the people who live here don’t cause riots we all suggested and like to think, the people who live here aren’t racist, the people who live here know how to protest peacefully, the people who live here don’t need forgiveness or to be delivered from lives of violence and death. But of course none of that is true. Whether the participants of that awful day were from North Downtown Charlottesville, Oregon, Georgia or California, we’re all in need of mercy, we’re all in need of deliverance from the dysfunction of our lives. 

2) and the second thing that can happen when we make this mistake of thinking Jesus is talking about bringing good news to those people over there is the obvious problem that we’re not hearing it as good news for us! And we’re left feeling like we have to face our problems and face our fears without hope or help from above. 

But Jesus’ good news is for all of us. Regardless of our financial situation we have all experienced poverty, be it financial stress or poverty of spirit, the feeling of separation between us and God or between us and love. We have all felt the painful absence of something in our lives. Regardless of whether you’ve ever felt the inside of a jail cell or felt imprisoned to the mountain of debt you’ve accumulated, we’ve all had a taste of feeling captive to something—like a past mistake, or a boss or a teacher who simply will not give us the benefit of the doubt. And regardless of how well you can physically see, we all experience moments of blindness in our relationships, unable to truly hear a person we love, what they need or feel. And we certainly feel a sense of blindness from time to time about our futures and our loved one’s futures, which is perhaps my greatest fear of all. 

All of these are different forms of captivity, and the more we feel pinned down by them, the more afraid we get. 

But Jesus has good news for all of us. Jesus quotes from Isaiah, this powerful passage about hope and deliverance. He reads it confidently and undoubtedly the congregation listening is getting excited and energized, perhaps they’ve sat up in their chairs, maybe even risen to their feet. Luke says that all of their eyes were fixed on him. But rather than standing up taller in the pulpit and raising his voice and raising his fist….Jesus sits down. And he delivers the world’s shortest sermon from his seat. He simply says, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Jesus sits down. Jesus sits down as a sign of completion, of rest. He sits down, not as a sign of power or control in the worldly sense, but as if to say you don’t need to be afraid, you can sit down too. Because Jesus sits down and says all of this prophecy of help one day coming to you in all of your distress, well, that day has come. Jesus sits down and says, “this has been made true right here, right now. It is finished.” Good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, it’s all here.

You don’t have to fear your future, and you don’t need to escape the present with all of your hope resting on some future achievement or solution. God has come to you to proclaim to you that it is finished. Because of his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, we have all been forgiven, we have all been set free and we have all been given his promise, his vision of a future without fear, because we have all been given him. 

As JRR Tolkien put it, because of Christ we don’t have to be afraid to see history or our lives for what they truly feel like and are, “as a long defeat, with small glimpses of final victory [along the way].” I think that Jesus sitting down is one of those glimpses. 

The Good News is that Jesus has taken his seat. Don’t worry about today, Jesus has taken his seat in the congregation, he has taken his seat next to you, with you this very moment and said it has all been taken care of. 

Don’t worry about tomorrow, Jesus has taken his seat beside you today and he isn’t going anywhere. 

Don’t cast all your hope into the future where some better version of yourself will make amends for the things you’ve done and left undone, for who you’ve become or who you haven’t become. Because Jesus has come to you and me, sat down with a sigh and said it is finished. 

Today Jesus has taken his seat. Today is the day of the Lord’s favor, the Lord’s favor given freely to you. It is finished. So have a seat. 

Amen